Rev Dr Graham Adams, of the Luther King Centre, has written a book entitled Holy Anarchy. Graham summarises the book here. The heart of Jesus’ vision is a reality he called the kingdom of God - 'a realm in which all dynamics of domination, not least in the church, are subverted'.
So this is Holy Anarchy of which Adams writes and in this hymn/poem I have been inspired by this vision.
Out beyond our understanding
Out beyond our understanding,
holy ‘truths’ that have us bound,
Holy Anarchy is waiting:
shakes, disturbing what we’ve found.
Strands beyond our human measure
test what’s certain, where we stand,
draw us out beyond our treasure
to an unknown holy land.
Far from what we thought was certain,
bound by darkness, hid by light,
dare we risk this strange adventure,
dream-like drifting, endless flight?
Might we yet glimpse sense and purpose,
seeming distant, yet so near,
here within our present context,
such a love as casts out fear?
More than we at first envisaged,
broader than our widest scope,
challenging our firm conceptions,
thoughts on which we’ve placed our hope:
this will strain imagination,
take us from our comfort zone,
seem like some incarnate chaos,
nothing like we’ve ever known.
Andrew Pratt
Words © 2022 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider
and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Tune: DIM ON IESU (a Welsh tune to reflect Graham's background)
Words inspired by Holy Anarchy, SCM, Graham Adams (2022).
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